


tide

by 50huskies



Category: Metal Gear
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-18
Updated: 2018-10-18
Packaged: 2019-08-03 20:18:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16332776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/50huskies/pseuds/50huskies
Summary: hold me up high for a whileyou always said i'd learn to cry, and you were rightand i wept through your hold of the night-mgs supply drop 2018#22: "can i sleep with you?"





	tide

**Author's Note:**

> and i'm still thinking of a new way to say  
> "i miss you"
> 
> -  
> written while listening to [swim against the tide - the japanese house](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1M8MWE-r04) (the above lyrics are also from here)

"Boss."

V stirs from his sleep, always on alert from even the faintest of sounds, but the voice is as familiar to him as the feeling of a gun in his hand. He turns towards the source groggily, leaning against his flesh arm to prop himself up. "Mm. Kaz?"

"I..." he looks hesitant at first - lost, almost, as he stands in the doorway. V can just barely discern the outline of his frame in the dark, clad in only a shirt and a pair of joggers. His hand clutches the crutch under his fingers, and he limps forwards, nearing the side of the bed. There's a pause, and V can see his shoulders drop as he swallows, letting out the faintest of sighs before he speaks up again.

"... can I sleep with you?"

V blinks up at him almost owlishly. It causes Kaz to flush, averting his gaze, the milky color in his eyes more evident now without his aviators to hide behind. When he frowns, the tense lines cut deep into his tired expression, regret already starting to flicker across his face. The grip on the metal cane tightens, knuckles nearly turning white, trying to look anywhere but at V.

A beat passes between them before he retreats, shifting his weight as he takes the silence as rejection, but V reaches up to grab his wrist, easily pulling Kaz into his chest and crowding him against the wall between him and the bed.

"Of course, Kaz." he murmurs into his hair, moving a hand to pet it back softly. His fingers curl gently around the base of his skull, as if he were cradling it, not unlike how he would pet DD after a long day of missions.

His tense body goes rigid at first, then slowly begins to soften as it gets used to V's warmth, a hand protectively on his side, and the places where their bodies meet. He smells faintly of smoke, though not unpleasant, and the military grade soap from the barracks. It's warm, familiar. _Home_.

When V presses his lips to his forehead, Kaz wants to cry.

His fist tightens around V's shirt, holding back a sob in his throat, and V only kisses him again, on his cheekbones, the bridge of his nose, the corner of his lips. He feels like a child in V's embrace, but can't hold back the wave of emotions that seem to ripple from his chest, tumbling down the length of his spine and along the edge of his fingertips.

A calloused finger pad smooths over the length of his cheekbones, tilting his face up so his eyes meet V's.

Kaz can't name the emotion he sees there, within V's sole blue eye, but for all that it reminds him of Seychelles' cold, unforgiving waters, he's never felt warmer.

He lets himself sink into V, into the arms that wrap around his sides, and for a moment they simply breathe in unison. The silence engulfs them both.

Inhale, exhale - and the beating of two hearts, torn by war.

V waits for Kaz to speak again, doesn't question it - he never does. For Kaz, his patience is endless, reaching for miles across the sea that surrounds them, for he knows, too well, that the world has not been kind to him.

(And it has not been kind to him either, but he would take it in strides ten times over if it meant giving Kaz the truth of his namesake - peace, _Kazuhira_ ,)

"Does... it ever end, V,"

Kaz's voice is faint, words spoken towards the space between them, and his fingers trace the outline of his shirt collar, running idly along the hem.

"You wouldn't like my answer, either way." V says after a moment. Contemplative, as if he were choosing his words wisely.

He watches Kaz's hands move, trailing lightly along the fabric, and leans down to grab them with his own fingers. The feather-light kisses he plants among them makes Kaz's heart skip one beat too many, and he lets out a breath he wasn't aware he was holding.

"We'll make them pay, V," his hands no longer shake, being held in V's grasp, but his voice does, the multitude of emotions wavering in his throat. "All of them,"

V only shakes his head.

"I can't tame your demons for you."

Kaz sighs, for possibly the hundredth time. There's a tiredness that refuses to let up, and V wants to reach out, to snuff it out, extinguish it with his own hands. But he can't, Kaz's pain an intangible mess with its roots buried further than he'd ever know. (Years and years and years and-)

"I know. I'm not... asking you to."

"Then what, Kaz?" V murmurs, though not unkindly.

Kaz's gaze drifts to his side, and V cups his face with his hand again, turns his face towards him gently.

"Kaz."

He doesn't want to look V in the eye.

Instead he closes them, leans forward to lean his head slightly against V's, flesh against flesh.

"Stay," he breathes. "With me. Please," and it's barely a whisper, almost inaudible, but V watches it escape from his lips, leans down to capture them with his own. He smooths out the expanse of his skin, a kindness that Kaz can feel even from beneath V's fingers, a kindness that he'd thought was lost to him, something that _he_ was never capable of-

They part, and the look in V's eye is back, the low ember of blue flame burning within his iris. A promise.

 

(in which so many words can be said, but none are needed)

 

"Always."

 

And when Kaz finally falls asleep, for the first time in a long time he dreams of nothing.

 

 


End file.
